It's anti-immigrant sentiments that are disfiguring America

The temptation must have been irresistible. Those poll number's in favor of the proposed Arizona immigration law must have looked pretty good to her.

In the short term it seems to have worked too. Brewer is riding a never-ending publicity campaign that will doubtless further her political career.

But at what cost to her party, and the nation? If we've learned anything in the last ten years we must realize that intimidating vulnerable minorities for political gain isn't the slam-dunk it used to be.

Arizona has a net loss of 98,900 jobs since Brewer took the reins as governor in January 2009. She has no credible plan for Arizona’s economic recovery. Instead of terrorizing the people who operate Arizona's service economy wouldn't she - and her state - be better off if she prioritized job creation?

Today we learned that in her neighboring state of Utah a bunch of bigoted yahoos circulated a list of 1,300 undocumented immigrants living in the state, a list that includes such personal information as addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and in six cases, the fact that they are pregnant and when they are due to deliver. All of the names were of Latino origin.

How long before the light of freedom in those states is provided by burning crosses?

'There might be nothing more American than getting ginned up over imagined enemies,' wrote Gawker today, 'creating lists of 'undesirables' and intimidating minorities. Say what you will about this country; we've always been pretty good at combining 'terrifying' with 'stupid.'

America is a nation of immigrants. It's actually anti-immigrant sentiments that are disfiguring America, not the immigrants themselves.